I am really torn between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM

[Chompineer]

Just curious... how much RAM does MacOS take up? Or how much RAM is available to the user?

Let's say MacOS uses 4GB on its own... which leaves you with 4GB for your applications on an 8GB machine.

But if you have a 16GB machine... MacOS still uses the same 4GB... but you would have 12GB for your applications.

In that example... you would have three times as much RAM available to you on a 16GB machine vs an 8GB machine.

RAM is dynamic, and usage is by priority demand. It isn’t as easy as “MacOS uses 4GB all the time”. In fact, you can likely get MacOS down to sub 750MB in true memory usage, if the demand arises.

If you have more, MacOS will use more, mostly for cache or other relatively unimportant things, just to utilize all the resources it has

If you are short on memory, cache or other nonmomentarily critical things will page out to free up space.

You also have to remember that MacOS utilizes memory compression (and very well).

There is a reason that Apple only offers 8GB M1 machines non-BTO. It’s enough for the target audience. If you’re trying to squeeze the machine so hard that you need more memory, then you should wait for whatever is replacing the higher spec pro’s.

 

[Michael Scrip]

The system will take as much as it can. We're not in the 90s anymore.

RAM is dynamic, and usage is by priority demand. It isn’t as easy as “MacOS uses 4GB all the time”.

If you have more, MacOS will use more, mostly for cache or other relatively unimportant things, just to utilize all the resources it has

If you are short on memory, cache or other nonmomentarily critical things will page out to free up space.

You also have to remember that MacOS utilizes memory compression (and very well).

There is a reason that Apple only offers 8GB M1 machines non-BTO. It’s enough for the target audience. If you’re trying to squeeze the machine so hard that you need more memory, then you should wait for whatever is replacing the higher spec pro’s.

Gotcha.

Thank you for the quick and concise responses!

 

[mi7chy]

Just curious... how much RAM does MacOS take up? Or how much RAM is available to the user?

Best case memory usage is ~4GB plus another ~4GB cache clean booting into desktop. Usage goes up if signed into iCloud with additional services running plus apps. Knowing what I know now after using the product I would never touch 8GB.

 

[Argon_]

Just curious... how much RAM does MacOS take up? Or how much RAM is available to the user?

Let's say MacOS uses 4GB on its own... which leaves you with 4GB for your applications on an 8GB machine.

But if you have a 16GB machine... MacOS still uses the same 4GB... but you would have 12GB for your applications.

In that example... you would have three times as much RAM available to you on a 16GB machine vs an 8GB machine.

MacOS will take more RAM if you have it. Extensive prefetching, mostly.

 

[Argon_]

There is a reason that Apple only offers 8GB M1 machines non-BTO. It’s enough for the target audience. If you’re trying to squeeze the machine so hard that you need more memory, then you should wait for whatever is replacing the higher spec pro’s.

A fair point.

Conversely, the M1 machines offer a proven chassis and peripherals, and a mature display technology.

 

[alien3dx]

The system will take as much as it can. We're not in the 90s anymore.

even not 90 , term " eat all em all java" become "memory leak everywhere".New comer would said, everything handle by modern language.

When system slow , putting more ram , faster ssd is not solving bad code over abuse oop..

 

[jim468]

Just curious... how much RAM does MacOS take up? Or how much RAM is available to the user?

Let's say MacOS uses 4GB on its own... which leaves you with 4GB for your applications on an 8GB machine.

But if you have a 16GB machine... MacOS still uses the same 4GB... but you would have 12GB for your applications.

In that example... you would have three times as much RAM available to you on a 16GB machine vs an 8GB machine.

Having used both 8GB and 16GB models, I can say that I have seen this happen when you have the same applications running. That is, the OS still uses the same ram (approximately) and the rest is available for other applications.

I agree with your assumptions.

 

[fmacmac]

Mini M1 16gb/512gb - Here is a screenshot of a few apps opened, screenshot doesn't show but I also have zoom opened

 

[nanosaur]

It makes me angry how much apple charge for RAM, but ultimately it is 2021 and 8GB RAM isn't enough for me, I know this from having used computers before. Ultimately the OS can do whatever it wants, but most of the RAM usage will come from you. Do you have 20+ chrome tabs open, half of which with youtube vids and social media pages? You're going to be using a couple of gigs of RAM just through your browser.

Because of that, I haven't really noticed any major differences in RAM usage between my intel macs and my M1. I have an 8GB MacBook Air that's a 2015, and I can do most daily duties on it just fine, but as soon as I start using a couple of higher memory tasks or something goes a bit nuts it will have to start swapping & eventually throw that you're running out of memory warning.

Personally I'd say look at what you're using on your current machine a few hours after last signing out/restarting to get an idea how much you need. Fortunately the base spec SSD seems a lot better with this version, so it's easier to save on the SSD if you do need the RAM

 

[Ethosik]

even not 90 , term " eat all em all java" become "memory leak everywhere".New comer would said, everything handle by modern language.

When system slow , putting more ram , faster ssd is not solving bad code over abuse oop..

Agree with this. I have been in situations before where the amount of hardware will make no difference with bad code. Not even spending $500,000 could fix it.

 

[xraydoc]

There is a reason that Apple only offers 8GB M1 machines non-BTO. It’s enough for the target audience. If you’re trying to squeeze the machine so hard that you need more memory, then you should wait for whatever is replacing the higher spec pro’s.

I would disagree with this statement. When I need to do some serious work and dock my laptop to my desktop monitor (a nice, big ultrawide display), I will have a bunch of apps open -- commonly something like PowerPoint with a couple of large presentations, usually one or two Word files, Preview with a bunch of PDFs, browser with multiple tabs, Mail, and likely a Citrix remote session (secure work system). While none of it is particularly processor intensive (jobs which fit very well with the "low end" M1), it will all easily occupy more than 8GB of RAM. While macOS can force it into 8GB, everything works much more smoothly with 16GB. No temporary beachballs, no momentary freezes, no browser refreshes.

 

[Lemon Olive]

Personally, I'm getting really tired of rewarding Apple for things like charging $200 for an extra 8 GB of RAM.

 

[Lemon Olive]

I would disagree with this statement. When I need to do some serious work and dock my laptop to my desktop monitor (a nice, big ultrawide display), I will have a bunch of apps open -- commonly something like PowerPoint with a couple of large presentations, usually one or two Word files, Preview with a bunch of PDFs, browser with multiple tabs, Mail, and likely a Citrix remote session (secure work system). While none of it is particularly processor intensive (jobs which fit very well with the "low end" M1), it will all easily occupy more than 8GB of RAM. While macOS can force it into 8GB, everything works much more smoothly with 16GB. No temporary beachballs, no momentary freezes, no browser refreshes.

Lol tell that to my Intel iMac with 32 GB of RAM. Plenty of beachballs, momentary freezes, and browser refreshes. It ain't RAM related bud.

 

[alien3dx]

Lol tell that to my Intel iMac with 32 GB of RAM. Plenty of beachballs, momentary freezes, and browser refreshes. It ain't RAM related bud.

ram is a thing but more important is background application what running behind . MACOS don't provide the ux for maintenance the "services" .If i come from the windows or linux allready got gui for that.

If for me in windows and macos. , i will install ccleaner. And clear all startup program.

RAM is RAM but background application hogging the ram via services the thing we cannot see easily

 

[dmccloud]

I would disagree with this statement. When I need to do some serious work and dock my laptop to my desktop monitor (a nice, big ultrawide display), I will have a bunch of apps open -- commonly something like PowerPoint with a couple of large presentations, usually one or two Word files, Preview with a bunch of PDFs, browser with multiple tabs, Mail, and likely a Citrix remote session (secure work system). While none of it is particularly processor intensive (jobs which fit very well with the "low end" M1), it will all easily occupy more than 8GB of RAM. While macOS can force it into 8GB, everything works much more smoothly with 16GB. No temporary beachballs, no momentary freezes, no browser refreshes.

Even the 8GB models of the M1 Macs can be pushed fairly hard without generating the spinning beachball. I ran a test on mine to see what it would take in Safari to get a beachball. 180 open tabs later (20 of which were YouTube videos), I finally got the spinner to appear. Given that I usually only have 10-15 open tabs at most, I'm not worried about 8GB becoming a bottleneck for how I use this Mac.

 

[alien3dx]

Even the 8GB models of the M1 Macs can be pushed fairly hard without generating the spinning beachball. I ran a test on mine to see what it would take in Safari to get a beachball. 180 open tabs later (20 of which were YouTube videos), I finally got the spinner to appear. Given that I usually only have 10-15 open tabs at most, I'm not worried about 8GB becoming a bottleneck for how I use this Mac.

Even me using it got some crash but for me still acceptable unless you never crash in macos, windows and linux. So the conclusion for me, just reduce the multi tasking and less thinking.

 

[ssgbryan]

The correct amount of memory is the maximum amount of memory. It isn't just what you need today, it is what you will need tomorrow. If you buy one of these, you bought a version 1.0 of a sealed system with a limited life-cycle (and paid a pretty penny in the bargain).

If you haven't bought already - wait for version 2; otherwise you are a beta tester for Apple, and you are paying for the privilege.

Sorry, but that is the reality of it (As I look at my 1st Gen MacBook Pro, appleTV, Time Capsule, iPhone, and Mac Pro).

 

[Argon_]

The correct amount of memory is the maximum amount of memory. It isn't just what you need today, it is what you will need tomorrow. If you buy one of these, you bought a version 1.0 of a sealed system with a limited life-cycle (and paid a pretty penny in the bargain).

If you haven't bought already - wait for version 2; otherwise you are a beta tester for Apple, and you are paying for the privilege.

Sorry, but that is the reality of it (As I look at my 1st Gen MacBook Pro, appleTV, Time Capsule, iPhone, and Mac Pro).

Some people, though not me, upgrade these devices every year or two. 'Buy the maximum' may be appropriate for your use case, but not everyone.

 

[Wildkraut]

The best way to currently simulate aging, is by creating a RAM-Drive. Fill it up, then use the machine and see how it behaves. E.g on 8GB Modell create a 4-6GB ram-drive, to simulate a higher RAM demand.

 

[Ethosik]

Some people, though not me, upgrade these devices every year or two. 'Buy the maximum' may be appropriate for your use case, but not everyone.

Buy the maximum is a dangerous thing to advise. I don’t think advising people (and I have done it since I did not know if it would make a difference) that 128GB of RAM in the case of my old iMac is worth it for just 1080p video editing. I tested on 8GB and it was just as good.

 

[MarkC426]

That is a completely different use case though.
An iMac CAN have the ram upgraded at ANY time, whereas the M1 cannot EVER.
So your stuck with whatever you choose at purchase time.

 

[Lemon Olive]

For what it costs to upgrade the BTO models, you're better off buying 2 low end models and glueing them together. Better value.

 

[ssgbryan]

Buy the maximum is a dangerous thing to advise. I don’t think advising people (and I have done it since I did not know if it would make a difference) that 128GB of RAM in the case of my old iMac is worth it for just 1080p video editing. I tested on 8GB and it was just as good.

But neither you nor I know what the end user may want to move to. It is real easy to fall down a rabbit hole.

 

[Ethosik]

But neither you nor I know what the end user may want to move to. It is real easy to fall down a rabbit hole.

By the time you move from needing only 8GB to needing 128GB, you will need other stuff like the newest processor and GPU. I went down this path with the 2010 Mac Pro, and I was missing out on the newest PC industry tech like PCIe 3 now 4, USB 3 now 4, Thunderbolt 3 now 4, newer processors and GPU that supports HEVC encoding and more.

And BTW 8GB of RAM on my 2010 Mac Pro and 8GB of RAM on my 2019 i9 iMac still was no issue for my 1080p video editing. I fail to see how upgrading either to MAXIMUM would be any benefit.

 

[circatee]

This has to be one of the hottest conversations in relation to the M1.
Alas, I do feel that each case is based on the individual use case...